Organizers of the March of the Living said about 10,000 people attended Thursday's event, including 150 Holocaust survivors and members of Israel's parliament. Many draped themselves in Israeli flags.

Participants walking the three kilometers (1.9 miles) from Auschwitz's barracks knelt to pray and light candles on the railway tracks that once brought Jews, Roma and others to the Birkenau extermination complex.

At least 1.1 million Jews were murdered at Birkenau during World War Two.

Historical records show that 6 million European Jews perished under the Nazi German genocide led by dictator Adolf Hitler.